When did it start for you ?

[TLW '90]

When did your interest in / love of coats and jackets start ?
I would love to hear any jacket related memories you have.

Growing up in the Valley of northern California it rarely drops below 40° so I never had to waddle out of the house like ralphies little brother, but I've always been skinny and jackets are my best friend in the colder months.
I have just always loved a good jacket.
I can actually remember most of the coats or jackets I had as a kid, not counting the sweatshirts or hoodies I had here and there.


Surprisingly I still have the first coat I can ever remember it is a 49ers coat my maternal grandmother bought me.
I must've been around 3 years old.

Then I had a pleather cross zip biker jacket she bought me along with a kids Harley for Christmas one year.
Another family member got me a cool pair of sunglasses to go with it too.
I thought I was so cool in the biker get up riding around on my very own motorcycle.

Next was a flannel lined wrangler jacket with a corduroy collar I had when I was 5-6 years old.




Then came an old wool plaid button up from age 8-9 or so , I believe it came from my paternal grandmother and originally belonged to my dad when he was that age.

From I was 10 my sister was working at some cloths store and used her employee discount to get me this really nice jacket for Christmas.
It was a thick khaki button up with a zip out hoodie, I'm guessing some kind of denim canvas or duck.
I just remember it being pretty stiff when I first got it.
I quite liked it but grew out of it pretty quickly.

Then there was one of my all time favorite jackets from age 11-13.
It was a blue plaid wool zip up with a quilted lining and thick cotton hood.
Luckily my dad bought that one a little big so I had it for quite a while.

I remember one time me and my friends were goofing off after school and it was getting warm so I took my jacket off and layed it on the curb ( I didn't take good care of it).
At some point this old timer walked up and asked me " is that your dog that got ran over " I didn't know what he was talking about until he pointed.
I told him it was just my jacket laying there and he had a good laugh.


Finally at age 13 when I finally grew out of my favorite jacket my dad gave me his first M65.
I thought that was the coolest jacket ever and it was one of my most prized possessions at that time, it was too big but I didn't care.

The stow away hood, the pockets, the fold out hand flaps, everything about it I just loved.
I mostly wore it as a rain jacket or when it wasn't as cold though because he didn't get a lining issued with it.

I still have and love that m65 and love it, but sadly it needs some repair.
Most of the velcro tabs are missing and I'd love to find someone who can repair it if anyone knows someone please let me know.

 

[TLW '90]

I knew I still had that little coat around here somewhere.


And I found a picture of that Wranglers jacket, my head looks huge in this picture but the jacket is the important part.

 

[Bahabp100]

When did your interest in / love of coats and jackets start ?
I would love to hear any jacket related memories you have.

Growing up in the Valley of northern California it rarely drops below 40° so I never had to waddle out of the house like ralphies little brother, but I've always been skinny and jackets are my best friend in the colder months.
I have just always loved a good jacket.
I can actually remember mos of the coats or jackets I had as a kid, not counting the sweatshirts or hoodies I had here and there.


Surprisingly I still have the first coat I can ever remember it is a 49ers coat my maternal grandmother bought me.
I must've been around 3 years old.

Then I had a pleather cross zip biker jacket she bought me along with a kids Harley for Christmas one year.
Another family member got me a cool pair of sunglasses to go with it too.
I thought I was so cool in the biker get up riding around on my very own motorcycle.

Next was a flannel lined wrangler jacket with a corduroy collar I had when I was 5-6 years old.




Then came an old wool plaid button up from age 8-9 or so , I believe it came from my paternal grandmother and originally belonged to my dad when he was that age.

From I was 10 my sister was working at some cloths store and used her employee discount to get me this really nice jacket for Christmas.
It was a thick khaki button up with a zip out hoodie, I'm guessing some kind of denim canvas or duck.
I just remember it being pretty stiff when I first got it.
I quite liked it but grew out of it pretty quickly.

Then there was one of my all time favorite jackets from age 11-13.
It was a blue plaid wool zip up with a quilted lining and thick cotton hood.
Luckily my dad bought that one a little big so I had it for quite a while.

I remember one time me and my friends were goofing off after school and it was getting warm so I took my jacket off and layed it on the curb ( I didn't take good care of it).
At some point this old timer walked up and asked me " is that your dog that got ran over " I didn't know what he was talking about until he pointed.
I told him it was just my jacket laying there and he had a good laugh.


Finally at age 13 when I finally grew out of my favorite jacket my dad gave me his first M65.
I thought that was the coolest jacket ever and it was one of my most prized possessions at that time, it was too big but I didn't care.

The stow away hood, the pockets, the fold out hand flaps, everything about it I just loved.
I mostly wore it as a rain jacket or when it wasn't as cold though because he didn't get a lining issued with it.

I still have and love that m65 and love it, but sadly it needs some repair.
Most of the velcro tabs are missing and I'd love to find someone who can repair it if anyone knows someone please let me know.

In 1977 I wanted to be a Ramone. My parents got me a flea market cross zip

 

[ton312]

 

[El Marro]

I have pretty much always loved jackets as well. My mom still has the Osh Kosh denim jacket I wore to preschool with a bunch of patches she ironed on for me.
And I still have the first really nice jacket I bought for myself, a Filson double mackinaw. I was 16 and I had spent most of the summer working for my Uncle in Iowa making $4 an hour. I’d managed to save up a couple hundred dollars and damn near every cent of it went to buy that jacket. Turned out to be a good purchase though, 30 years have gone by and the jacket still fits and gets compliments when I wear it.

 

[dwilson]

I like light jackets because they remind me of fall and spring which are my favorite seasons. I have absolutely no love for winter coats. They just remind me of brutal Ohio winters where I'm freezing my ass off standing and waiting for the bus or shoveling snow.

More specifically for leather I've always been kind of drawn towards leather jackets. My dad was in the navy so naturally as a navy child I had a leather bomber. From there I usually always had a leather jacket of some kind. Normally just a cheapo $150 mall brand jacket. Now that I make decent enough money I can indulge this interest further.

 

[TLW '90]

I just remembered another jacket that I really liked.

When I was around 12 my dad found his Army issued black trench coat and assuming it was something I'd never want he told me to ask one of my siblings ( they had a different dad ) if they wanted it.

I asked my oldest brother who happens to be gay and is really into fashion ( not that it matters, but he keeps up on fashion trends ), and he said " ooooh! is it a pea coat ?" .
I really didn't know how to respond to such a dumb question, so I just laughed and walked away.
Anyways nobody else wanted it, so I just ended up taking it and I really loved it.
I still have it, but I'm not sure if it fits anymore.


I have a lot of good memories from my childhood that are related to coats and jackets.

I remember my second oldest brother had this cool denim jacket with Snoopy on the back and the tub of winter cloths it was in got buried in our storage unit during a recent move.
He was pestering my mom for months and months to find it for him and when she finally did he had grown out of it



There was another time when my oldest sister had borrowed my oldest brothers favorite jacket and got a stain on it.
They got in a huge fight over it and he eventually told her " B...h go back to your street corner and earn some money to replace my jacket " .( she kind of dressed like one ) he is honestly one of the funniest people I know.
She was not happy about that so she threw a shoe at him which he dodged, and it hit my other sister when she was walking by.
That pretty much ended the fight right there.

 

[Khilij]

My love of leather jackets started with my grandfather, he always had one British style motorcycle jacket that he wore every day, rain or shine, no matter how hot it was in our little corner of India that day. He beat the absolute snot out of that thing and I always dreamed I would have one that looked just like it someday. It looked a bit like a Lewis Leathers style jacket, with the quilted padding, but it was made by a local artisan. I remember being 7 years old, sneaking into my grandfather's bedroom, tiptoeing past the family German Shepherd and grabbing his jacket off the chair and trying it on and pretending I was just like him.

Unfortunately, I was unable to justify the cost of such a jacket until earlier this year, when I purchased a Vanson Chopper as my one and only leather jacket after achieving a significant professional milestone.

I don't have a picture of my grandfather in his jacket anymore, but as a consolation prize, Here's a picture of me in mine, of course doing my best impersonation of one of the toughest men I ever had the pleasure of knowing.

 

[dwilson]

I think you've told that story before Khilij and it always warms my heart to hear it. Its amazing these small things from our childhoods that can have such an impact on us as adults.

 

[navetsea]

I'm very late to jacket appreciation. partly due to the climate I live in, and also I was heavier when I was younger so I didn't feel I needed jacket at all.

Growing up in the 80-90s it was my parents who bought me clothes, and I wore oversize clothes, it was the style of the era and also would take longer to outgrow them. in my country we wear school uniform from monday to saturday, so I never felt the need to buy clothes to not being bullied at school or things like that, basically I only wear outgoing clothes to go to church/ sunday school, or mall to shop groceries on the weekend, or when I needed to buy something in stationery shop or looking for toys. I always hate collar my whole life, so most of my clothes were crewneck short sleeve plain t-shirt in grey, blue, and black. I wore baggy jeans those days, mostly black jeans, and Nike basketball sneakers even when I didn't love the sport. my jackets were thin nylon jackets with hoodies just normal outdoor camping jackets, I only wore them in the wet part of the year to ride bicycle to school to not soil the uniform.

in university late 90 to 00s, my clothes turned very drab and boring, naturally I no longer wore uniform so I needed to have clothes to wear to class, but I hated spending money on them so I bought clothes from factory outlet all my money went to playstation games and toys, anything plain with collar because university dictated that and I hate collared shirt I didn't care at all about what to buy, from what I remember I had blue shirt, olive shirt, khaki shirt all short sleeved because I study architecture and drew a lot and long sleeve could smear things across the vellum paper I drew on. I wore either class jacket (grey straight zip collared jacket with faculty name on the right chest made from canvas) or my first leather jacket my mother bought me when I visited her home, she bought 2 similar jackets in the same style dark brown for her husband and a black for me as a gift (from the same jacket maker I ordered my custom projects from) it was oversize raglan sleeve blouson with small dress collar in black dyed through heavily painted cowhide, it was the most boring style and leather, in my mind leather jacket was all that something to wear on motorcycle a riding gear nothing more although this one balooning too if I didn't wear backpack... and paired with black or dark blue jeans also mall jeans just not as baggy, I still wore basketball shoes, and also canvas converse lookalike by local brand. I have seen motorcycle jacket, I have seen denim jacket, but they are all from the movies worn by foreigners to me they are no different than spacesuit worn by astronaut, not available locally, especially in small town I live.

the first leather shoes outside of leather basketball shoes, was mall shoes, loafer with square toes in black for my graduation ceremony from university.

post university I still dressed the same, back to crew neck tshirt bought from supermarket in black and grey, and the same jeans and trousers I wore in university or even from highschool. I rarely wore my leather jacket since I felt them being oversized and boring, so my grandma gave it away to construction worker that happened to do something on our house. the brown one owned by the husband of my mom still exist today hanging on the garage near his matic scooter, with my current eyes I can be certain even now they look as bad and boring as I remembered them, his are very worn out, leather cracking pigment peeling, normal people here never heard of leather conditioner, and the leather is honestly just a thick crappy sanded leather basically finished nubuck that will never show any kind of grain.

the opportunity came when internet shopping reached my country and I had some budget to spare on clothes, more can be found on google, then I think again about leather jacket, started browsing around found local jacket maker not the one near my mom's house I always thought they make boring jackets, so I bought online locally in sheepskin in tan color, I thought tan is very neutral can be matched with anything, I won't need another jacket, so it came 1 month later and it was carrot orange...

but I was happy, thinking I m a leather jacket owner now, it is genuine leather unlike the majority of "leather jacket" here. so I joined forums, browsing here and I said...shit... I need leather jacket, not the orange one.
so I visited this boring jacket maker bringing my orange jacket as sample, I wanted to have something more or less like that but in better thicker hide, black, and more waisted... dual zipper... and then it started.
I thought wait a minute so I drew comic characters with jackets and stuff to look cool... and I can bring a drawing like that here and they will make me a jacket to wear, so I can be the cool comic character, wait a minute...

 

[TLW '90]

I just found an old leather jacket I forgot I had.


Sadly it doesn't fit, must've been put in the washer or something

 

[AerGuitar]

Hmmm.. for me it started somewhat recently, around 2018. For years I’d spent more time on my motorcycles than in any car. Strangely, jackets were just a tool, and I never really found one that I thought looked good on me. If they were comfy, they were oversized. I came across an old Brimaco cafe racer in thick, shiny steerhide that was probably 2 sizes too small, and I was in love. Now officially a badass, I knew if I looked hard enough, I could find one even cooler. Got my first Aero J100 Board racer in 2019 and I was completely blown away. What had I been doing with my life?? Now, all my bikes are gone, but I can’t stop buying jackets. For the last couple years, scanning FL classifieds and Thurston’s Aero page are part of my daily routine. I need help, I’m probably a lost cause, but I feel right at home here..